The Internal Enlargement of the European Union and the Surplus of the Intermediate Level of Government

Abstract

In recent years, many of the Member States have experienced dramatic changes in the organisation of their intermediate level governments, while new ways and channels have been established to enhance the interaction between the intermediate level and the EU institutions. The conditions for what can be described as multi-level governance are changing, and empowered intermediate-level governments are increasingly putting further and new demands on the functioning and organisation of the European Union and its institutions. In this article an overview is given of how the intermediate level of government in the Member States has changed and some of the problems connected with this. Furthermore, different types of interaction between the intermediate level and the EU institutions are examined. What we see in many Member States today is a situation in which new ways of organising the intermediate level of government have been introduced with the aim of improving efficiency and democracy, while old ways are maintained. Therefore, the intermediate level is becoming increasingly complex. In some unitary states the development is heading in a "federal" direction, whilst federal states seem to be embracing the federal character of government even further. But it is a rather strange type of “federalisation”, since in the same country both the degree of autonomy given to different geographical areas and the way in which these new intermediate-level governments are organised may differ quite substantially.